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1
A Bug's Life (1998)
7.2/10on IMDb
Released
Flik has to find help for an ant colony that owes food to a gang of grasshoppers. The circus bugs he brings back are a wonderfully bad fit for the assignment. Start here if you want a colony that works like a small town, right down to everyone knowing which inventor has caused the latest mess.
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Antz (1998)
6.5/10on IMDb
Released
Z, a worker ant, swaps jobs with a soldier to get closer to Princess Bala. The switch puts a character who wants to be noticed inside a colony that has already decided what everybody is for. Choose this for a more pointed joke about how an ant society might look from the bottom.
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Them! (1954)
7.2/10on IMDb
Released
The giant ants first show up as a mystery in the New Mexico desert, before the search moves to the storm drains of Los Angeles. That shift from open ground to cramped tunnels gives the creatures two very different ways to make people feel small. Pick it for monster suspense that takes its time revealing the scale of the problem.
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Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants (2013)
7.1/10on IMDb
Released
A box of abandoned sugar brings black and red ants into conflict, and a ladybug sides with the black ants. The sugar cubes are funny precisely because they’re worth hauling home one by one. Pick it for a little adventure that can make an emptied picnic site feel like contested ground.
More about Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants5
Phase IV (1974)
6.4/10on IMDb
Released
Two scientists try to understand unusually intelligent ants from inside a protective desert station. Saul Bass intercuts their work with close-up footage of real ants. The effect is less a rampage than a slow realization that the creatures may be observing the humans just as closely.
More about Phase IV6
The Ant Bully (2006)
5.8/10on IMDb
Released
Lucas takes his frustrations out on an anthill until the ants shrink him to their size. Suddenly the damage he could make in a few seconds is the place where he has to live. Try it for a family adventure that asks what the colony looks like when you’re small enough to be subject to its rules.
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Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
6.5/10on IMDb
Released
A friendly ant named Anty gives the shrunken kids a ride across their backyard and comes to their rescue when a scorpion attacks. Choose this for a live-action family adventure where an ant that would barely register on a normal day becomes one of the kids’ most memorable allies.
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Minuscule 2: Mandibles from Far Away (2019)
6.9/10on IMDb
Released
When a young ladybug gets shipped to the Caribbean in a parcel, the ant and spider help with a rescue far from the yard they know. Watch the two Minuscule movies together if you like seeing the same team solve different problems at ground level. Here the journey takes them away from the old sugar-box feud.
More about Minuscule 2: Mandibles from Far Away9
Cricket & Antoinette (2023)
5.7/10on IMDb
Released
Antoinette is heir to an anthill where music is forbidden. A cricket who lives for music offers her a very different idea of how a community might spend its time. Choose this Croatian animated feature if you want the old grasshopper-and-ant argument to turn into a story about what two neighbors can learn from each other.
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The Grasshopper and the Ants (1934)
7.1/10on IMDb
Released
In this Disney Silly Symphony, the ants gather food while the grasshopper prefers to sing and play. The little musical makes the colony a foil for one charming shirker. Pair it with Cricket & Antoinette to see what changes when the ant who has to work becomes a lead in her own right.
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Tea for Two Hundred (1948)
7.2/10on IMDb
Released
Donald Duck tries to hold on to his picnic when an army of ants comes for the food. Jack Hannah’s 1948 short lets the insects escalate a small inconvenience until even Donald’s clothes are fair game. Pair it with A Bug’s Life for two very different reasons an ant might show up at a picnic.
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Adventure of an Ant (1983)
7.9/10on IMDb
Released
An ant gets blown away from home in Eduard Nazarov’s 1983 animated short. The trip back gives a single tiny traveler the sort of obstacle course an adventure movie might give an entire expedition. Look for it under the alternate English title Travels of an Ant.
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Ants - Nature's Secret Power (2004)
Released
Wolfgang Thaler follows ant researcher Bert Hölldobler into both the laboratory and the field. The close-up footage gives you time to see how different species organize a colony. Choose this if you want the range of ant behavior that a movie about one nest can only hint at.
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Planet Ant: Life Inside The Colony (2013)
8.3/10on IMDb
Released
A full-scale nest built for a colony of Trinidadian leafcutter ants lets the filmmakers look into places a camera can’t normally reach. Try this BBC nature special if the question you want answered is what happens after the ants carry the leaves inside.
More about Planet Ant: Life Inside The Colony15
Attenborough and the Empire of the Ants (2017)
8.2/10on IMDb
Released
The Swiss Jura is home to wood ants that can share a huge network of nests. David Attenborough compares their cooperation with the behavior of ants from a more fiercely territorial colony. Watch for how differently ants of the same species can live when their neighbors are part of the problem.
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BBC Natural World:Empire of the Desert Ants
This BBC nature special follows a honeypot ant queen trying to establish a nest in the Arizona desert. Keeping the focus on one founder and the rival colonies around her makes it a good choice if you prefer a clear story to a tour of many species.
More about BBC Natural World:Empire of the Desert Ants17
The Naked Jungle (1954)
6.7/10on IMDb
Released
The ants in this Charlton Heston adventure are a moving front that can overwhelm a plantation. Their advance turns a period melodrama into a siege. Choose it to see how much menace an old adventure movie gets from a swarm where the individual insects stay small.
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Empire of the Ants (1977)
4.4/10on IMDb
Released
A real estate pitch turns into a giant-ant encounter when prospective buyers visit the land they’ve been offered. That setup gives the movie a faintly comic edge before the creatures appear. Pick it for a 1970s monster feature with Joan Collins selling a place nobody ought to buy.
More about Empire of the Ants19
It Happened at Lakewood Manor (1977)
5.0/10on IMDb
Released
This TV movie has an alternate title, Ants. An infestation traps visitors at a lakeside resort, and the ordinary scale of the insects is what makes the setting work. You’re left wondering how many can reach the guests before anyone figures out how to get them out.
More about It Happened at Lakewood Manor20
Ant-Man (2015)
7.2/10on IMDb
Released
Scott Lang trains with ants before the heist, and the team includes a flying ant he calls Ant-thony. Seeing him try to cooperate with insects makes the scale of the adventure matter in a way the shrinking suit can’t do on its own. Pick the first Ant-Man if you want the ants in the crew.
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Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
6.0/10on IMDb
Released
Hank Pym’s ants get a payoff in the Quantum Realm after the movie spends much of its time with the human family and the people they meet there. Watch it after the original Ant-Man if you want to see the same idea, insects as capable teammates, turned into a much bigger spectacle.
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